The Hundred and One Dalmatians by Dodie Smith
Life for Mr and Mrs Dearly and their dogs, Pongo and Misses, is going well. They live near Regent’s Park in London and are very comfortably well off, Mr Dearly having...
29 March 2014
Wolves by Simon Ings
I totally agree with that old saying “never judge a book by its cover”, but more often than not it is the cover that piques your interest. If it didn’t all...
22 February 2014
The Ransom of Dond by Siobhan Dowd
Illustrated by Pam Smy Darra lives on the island of Inniscaul is a small island off the coast of Eriu, or Ireland. And it is her fate to be sacrificed to...
10 February 2014
A Pelican at Blandings by P.G. Wodehouse
Blandings Castle #11 Clarance, the ninth Earl of Emsworth is enjoying life. The pride of his life, Empress of Blandings is in good health and life at the castle is peaceful...
2 February 2014
Michael Rosen’s Sad Book by Michael Rosen
illustrated by Quentin Blake This book opens with a picture of the author, smiling. The words tell a different story. They tell us that this is a picture of Michael Rosen...
26 January 2014
A Wrinkle in the skin by John Christopher
AKA The Ragged Edge. Read for the 2014 Sci-Fi Experience In the 1960s a wave of earthquakes brings destruction around the globe. Isolated off the British coast Matthew Cotter thinks that...
9 December 2013
Ghost Hawk by Susan Cooper
Little Hawk is about to leave his family and village to go into the woods and live alone for three months, a ritual that will see him in his way to...
9 October 2013
The man in the picture by Susan Hill
Part of my RIP VIII reading. Oliver is visiting his old Oxford tutor when Theo begins to tell him a story. It is a cold January night, perfect for huddling round...
19 September 2013
To the lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
Ramsay wants to go to the lighthouse. His mother says that yes, of course they can go tomorrow, weather permitting. His father disagrees. The weather will not permit it, he asserts, they will not go to the lighthouse.
Much of this novel revolves around the one afternoon and evening before this proposed trip to the lighthouse. The Ramsay family, maternal and magnificent mother, needy professor father and all eight children are staying in their holiday home in the Isle of Skye. With them are a number of other guests, Lily Briscoe the painter. William Banks, Augustus Carmichael, and Charles Tansey.
16 July 2013
A town like Alice by Nevil Shute
In post World War II England Jean Paget is tracked down by a solicitor. She is the only surviving member of a client of his, and so stands to inherit his...
26 May 2013
After tomorrow by Gillian Cross
In the near future the economy has collapsed. Money is pretty much useless. Matt and his family have been lucky, they can grow some food and have been sensible, trading and...
8 May 2013
The silver dark sea by Susan Fletcher
Life is different when you live on an island. The sea is all important, whether or not you make you living from it. The sea can be heard everywhere, and to...
5 April 2013
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